I CAN'T deny it; I think I went on a bit of a bender last night, rendering me incapable of providing a column, for which I am dearly sorry. If it is any consolation, however, the couch upon which I slept had leather cushions, which were miserably fond of sliding off said couch. Herego, I slept on what amounts to a bed of hard metal springs.

At any rate, I assure you, dear readers: I did not wear a green hat. I repeat, I did not wear a green hat. In fact I went hatless, which, in addition to being highly uncharacteristic, also didn't help any when the temperature dipped. Ah, well. 'Twas a fine holiday. Now, on with the letters!

LETTERS

Randomblings HO!

Hey Matt or Andrew,

You know, this has been in my mind for awhile but i just now decided to write in about it. So out of sheer boredom and procrastination, I decided to watch Star Wars, all six of them since it has been awhile since iv'e seen them. Now in episodes 1-3 there is this song that i really like. The moment that sticks out of my mind is at the end of Phantom Menace when they're battling Darth Maul. Now the background music for that so reminds me of a song somewhat identical to that in Kingdom Hearts and im sure its in Kingdom Hearts II. I dont know the name of it at the top of my head but i know it plays toward the end of 1 in the final dungeon area/Ansem. Am the only one to notice this? Because it has been driving me nuts for a few years now. Am i just crazy?

Andrew

Ah, yes... that song. I used to know the name of it, but alas, time and Episode 2's first half all but destroying what little faith in the series I had left have robbed me of it. Fortunately, through the miracle of reading, the time it will take me to find it will mean nothing to you, nothing! By which I mean, it's called Duel of the Fates, which I should have known, since I listened to it about a thousand times when that film came out. In any case it is no surprise that a VG composer would rip off another composer; listen to Holst's Planets suite and you'll find all sorts of creative license being taken (Jupiter, in particular, seems to have funded a fair bit of Suikoden II's soundtrack); and don't forget the whole The Rock vs. Liberi Fatali controversy of years past!

Also, a couple more quick questions! 1. Is there any plans to open up weekend Q&A, or are you/Andrew going to do it for awhile and stick around? Also whatever happened to Googlesheng? I remember he did Q&A then like dropped off the planet?

Crys

Andrew

No such plans exist, unless people tire of my bender-going-on, in which case I guess you might see another here eventually. As for Jake, there... was an incident. It happened early in the morning so very few people saw it, but suffice it to say, it caused the abrupt end you speak of. Last I heard, he was meeting with some success in his efforts to sell his tabletop game; his site is at www.kekkai.org/google/ if you are curious. I'd link it, but in the incident in question, he called me a brat, and that sort of thing sticks with you, you know? :(

And if any of you wiseacres even think of comparing me to those wretched Bratz dolls I'll UfP you so fast your head will spin! NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!

Note to self: lay off the gin.

Be a dear and don't say the word n00b again, or you'll not be getting posted here anytime soon

OHMIGODIGOTPOSTED!!

Ah..ahem!! Sorry bout that! It's just that I've been going round on forums & communities online posting stuff only to be disappointed by the typical 'we don't deal with n00bs, scram!' kinda reply. But not you guys! Ouro actually posted my rant on bosses (March 3rd) and actually answered! Thank you! Thanks for making a believer out of this n00b! Anyways, on with the questions!
First off, there's been rumors spreading round on my regular game shop about a remake of Tales of Destiny 1 and an English release of ToD 2. Is that true? How about the English release of Tales of Symphonia for the PS2? Is that true?

Andrew

I have heard nothing in regards to your first question, but it is strikingly similar to the second. The second question never did, and continues not to, make any sense to me. Why on earth would either of Sony or Namco bother with such a release when Namco continues to pump out Tales games faster than rabbits breed? I grant that each of these titles made financial sense for a Japanese release, since the market for those titles is somewhat larger over there, but Tales titles haven't exactly rocked the sales casbah over here, so I just don't see it making much sense, except, perhaps, for the PSP release, since Sony needs all the help it can get there.

Second of all, is it curtains for the PS2 already? I mean, I'm not really ready to shell off a cart-load of 'my precioussssss' (Gollum tribute ^_^) dollars to invest in the PS3 AND an HDTV, but I've been scared stiff about news flying around that there will be no more RPG releases for the PS2 come 2008 and that this is the last year for the lil' black console that has brought me so much RPGaming joy in the past few years. Is it really over? Say it ain't so, man! Say it ain't so!!

Andrew

No, it's not quite the end for PS2; Odin Sphere, a game we've already added a fair bit of coverage for, is slated for release later this year, and if you check our games page, you'll see a number of titles. I think you'll continue to see PS2 titles for the next year or so, until the installed PS3 userbase becomes great enough to ignore the fact that there are tens of millions of PS2s kicking around out there.

And on that note, whatever happened to .hack//GU? I was told by my friends, yet another forum dweller who (sometimes) sneered on a n00b like me, that Bandai is releasing Vol.2 early this year and Vol.3 come this Christmas. I still don't see Vol.2 around. Is he lying? Should I smack him with a rubber chicken?

Andrew

I do not favour such smackings, so please use something with a little more heft, like a fire poker. Vol.2 is set to come out this summer, but we don't seem to have much info on the game, so with such a nebulous release date, I'm guessing it might slide into the fall or later, given this combination.

Third and second to last, do you think I should get Persona 3? I've played only Digital Devil Saga 1&2 plus Devil Summoner, but only liked DDS. For some reason the active battle system in DS just feels...ick. Don't know how else to describe it. ^_^ Also, I loved the story of Wild Arms 4 but hated the battle system. Should I get WA5?

Andrew

Everyone who plays the SMT series and its baffling array of subseries seems to enjoy the titles, so yeah, what the hey.

Aaand for the final question...which of the upcoming new-releases do you think will be 'fulfilling'? You know, great storyline, snappy music, excellent battle system and 'relevant' final boss (see my boss rant if you don't get what I mean). In short, another 'FFVII' all wrapped up in a single package for my darling lil' black box?

Well, I think I'll stop bothering you now. Gotta get back to my Rogue Galaxy How in the world do you make a Hades Child EX anyways? All my friends got it but I don't. *sob* T-T

Bye all!

~a n00b named zegramfan~ (can you guess who my fav character is in RG? ^_^)

Andrew

Yeah... I don't see anything on that list that screams new FFVII to me, but Odin Sphere looks pretty sweet, so why don't you wait for that?

I DON'T think we'll be doing that, gentlemen... EEE EEE EEE EEE

Square has no remakes, eh? What ever will they do? Well here are a
couple (Unlikely) things they COULD do.

Make an original game! What a concept! Actually, they are doing this
on several fronts and those are just the games they have actually
announced: FF13 FFVS13 FF12RW Chocobo Tales. I know I'm forgetting
some. Boy they are really "Final Fantasy" heavy if you know what I
mean.

Re-Remake ALL the games all over again! They could give FF1, 2, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, 9, 10 the DS treatment like they did for FF3! OK, not too
likely, but hey, it could happen. They could give any of them the PS2
treatment if they felt like it.

Make sequels / side story games for any of the Final Fantasies! They
have done this in the past for FF7 and 10, and are planning to do this
for 12 and 13. My personal vote is some kind of FF1 sequel where
somehow Chaos escapes the time loop (Don't ask me how, the writers
will come up with something), creates havoc, and a new group of light
warriors must stop Chaos.

Flamethrower

Andrew

Yes, yes. They've been pounding the Final Fantasy name like there's no tomorrow. The thing is, though, that aside from the strict remakes, they still come up with largely original games, which is why the FF series has managed to survive for so long. Yes, there are reused characters and reused names and reused chocobos, but the games themselves have always evolved. It's just a pity they don't have enough faith in their games to you know, give them a new name.

Welcome to the past few years

I am a huge Final Fantasy fan, and with all the remakes, I've been able to get through all of the games. I often wonder why the same treatment hasn't been done for Dragon Quest! I realize it is much more popular in Japan than it is in America, but I think there is a market for those older DQ games, especially if they were upgraded graphically and whatnot. Is there any plans for these games to make a compilation stateside or maybe some DS remakes?

Andrew

Actually, Dragon Quests III through V have been redone, in Japan at least. It's just the series has always sold miserably here as compared to there, so I just don't think there's the market for it, unfortunately. You can say that hopefully, of course, but looking at the sales figures will tell the tale. FF sells; DQ sells less.

Reality bites

Hi Matt

Ahh randomness in battles is it? I guess that I only really object to random battles under two conditions. Those are frequency and similarity. By that I mean that a random battle that occurs every two to three steps in the game is not random battles but merely a continuing battle separated by two to three steps. (FF 10 I am looking at you here!) Similarity is that problem which occurs when the monsters are merely separated by a colour change. (Thankfully this occurs much less frequently than it used to!)

So if you give me random battles that are a) random and b) include more than the same two or three monsters then I will happily accept them. On the other hand if you give me the same monsters every two or three steps then I will soon be screaming and throwing the controller at some poor inanimate object!

A

Angus

Andrew

i'm not so sure it occurs all that much less frequently; NISA games are often guilty of this crime, and even S-E still sneaks it in a fair bit (especially in FFXII, where you'll notice a lot of recycled character models). Either way, you're not going to escape the grouping of enemies by area, and I don't really get all that bothered by it. Then again, I did spend 20 hours levelling up in FFVI on the sole power of Adamanchyts and Slurm.

IN CLOSING

Okay, that's it for today, I'm afraid. More for tomorrow when I become slightly more coherent.